The Truth About Remus Lupin - A Marauders Story
by greekmarauders
Summary: A one-shot relaying the story of how the marauders found out about Remus' furry little secret. Enjoy! (re-uploaded due to some bug)
It really wasn't that difficult to tell. What with all the fresh scratches that covered his body, and the fatigue, and the excuses (Remus was never a good liar anyway, which was surprising given all the practice he's had). They were only twelve and James couldn't even convincingly hide his ginormous crush on Lily Evans from his friends, it was honestly surprising they hadn't talked about Remus' furry little secret earlier.

The day they all found out they were, unsurprisingly, in Astronomy, which just happened to overlap with the day before the full moon, which also overlapped with the day they learned about werewolves in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus never was the luckiest of the four.

The professor was explaining how tonight was the full moon (yay!), and it was also a super moon (double yay!), which meant that the moon was closer to the earth and would appear 12-14% bigger than usual (triple yay!). Sirius was unconsciously falling asleep on James' shoulder when the messy-haired boy pushed him off and made him fall right to the floor saying in a drowsy voice, "I was listening! More moon hooray!"

Everyone burst into fits of laughter.

Sirius flopped back into his chair and glared at James, who couldn't see through the laughter induced tears in his eyes. Once everyone calmed down, James leaned over to Sirius and whispered, "What do you think a super moon does to a werewolf? Do you think theres gonna be a bunch of killing sprees tonight?"

Sirius shrugged, "Maybe. Let's ask Remus, Remus knows everything."

They turn back towards Remus and Peter's table in unison.

"Hey Remus, what do you think a super moon does to a werewolf?" Sirius asked.

"I dunno, probably makes them more blood-thirsty than ever," Remus replied. They nodded.

"That's what we figured," James pitched in, then after a pause he continued, "Hey, you okay there mate? You seems a little tired,"

"I'm fine, Sirius is the one who feel asleep in class." he gestured to Sirius, who seemed to be drifting off again.

"But Sirius _always_ falls asleep in class, I'd be worried if he started paying attention, but you're not Sirius," James said then looked over at Sirius and shout/whispered into his ear, "Sirius! Get up!"

Sirius groaned, "It's her voice, I can't _not_ fall asleep listening to it. When does this class end?"

"45 more minutes."

"45 minutes?!" Sirius sounded furious, "we've only been sitting here for 15 minutes?! How is that possible?"

"It's not, I was only joking, we have 3 minutes left."

Sirius sighed with relief, and straightened up.

* * *

Once the class was over Sirius and James both headed to quidditch tryouts, while Remus and Peter headed to the library to catch up on some homework.

James and Sirius both had their brooms in hand, as they came out of the castle.

"Remus is a werewolf you know," James said.

Without missing a beat, or even looking up, Sirius replied with, "I know."

"You know? I really thought I would catch you by surprise there!"

Sirius scoffed, "Oh please, the scratches, the tiredness, the tensing whenever the topic comes up, the 'mother is ill again', _every single month_ for a year and a half? I'd be blind not to have seen it by now."

"Well, I don't think Peter's seen it."

"Of course Peter hasn't seen it."

"Well if you knew, why didn't you say anything?" James asked.

"Everyone has secrets."

James paused, as if not knowing what to say next.

"Well..." he started, "don't you think we should tell him we know? And that we don't think any less of him now that we do?"

"I think when he's ready, he'll tell us himself, don't you? Let's go, there probably already waiting for us." Sirius started to walk towards the quidditch pitch, when James grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.

"Wait, but can't you see it's hurting him? I don't just want to stand around, knowing what's going on. We can help him."

"How do you suppose we do that? There's no cure you know." Sirius seemed skeptical, but also intrigued by the prospect of possibly being able to do something. It's like when James thought of a brilliant prank but Sirius wasn't sure how they could pull it off.

"I know that, I'm not an idiot," James said.

"Well..."

"No. I'm not. I've thought this through. We can become Animagi! Remus wouldn't hurt us and he wouldn't hurt himself, because we'd be animals. I mean it would take a while, but we could do it. I know it's not allowed but when has that ever stopped us from doing something. For one of our best friends nevertheless!"

"We could go on adventures! Every full moon! I wonder what animal I'd be, we have to get started immediately. We'll tell Peter, then we tell Remus, oh this _is_ brilliant." Sirius could barely contain his excitement, and James seemed surprised that he had jumped on board so quickly, he had a whole speech about friendship, loyalty, and protection prepared.

"Well, now we _really_ have to get to quidditch."

* * *

Peter took it well. If 'well' was defined as completely manic.

"REMUS?! A WEREWOLF?" Sirius didn't think he had ever seen someones eyes get that wide before.

"Say it louder will you? I don't think Japan heard you _quite_ so clearly." Sirius said sarcastically. James snickered.

"But REMUS? He's just...he's just Remus! Not a werewolf? That's impossible. That is literally an impossibility. Impossible." Peter rambled.

"Wow the word impossible is starting to sound weird," James said curiously.

"Stop being so calm! It's Remus we're talking about! Remus! One of our best friends! Who's slept in our dorm for a year and a half! Remus! A werewolf!"

"Yes Remus. Yes werewolf. Yes Remus is a werewolf," Sirius sighed, "Are you okay?"

"I'm FINE! Oh wait, no I'm not! How long have you known?"

"Since the beginning. I can spot a werewolf from a mile away, and I can tell a muggle-born from 10 miles away. Perks of being born in a family of insane blood purists."

"Well I've had my suspicions since the beginning of the year." James inputted.

"Why am I always the last to know?! I AM SO CONFLICTED RIGHT NOW."

"Can we get to the plan now? You still support your friend no matter what right?"

"OBVIOUSLY."

"Please stop yelling everything you say."

"OKAY."

"STOP YELLING IT'S ANNOYING!"

"Okay."

"Good."

The actual confronting Remus was just as melodramatic as Sirius expected. There was crying and hugging and Remus thinking he was a monster and speech making and confessions, but in the end everyone seemed to feel a bit better and certainly much closer than ever before.

The animagus process started immediately, and by the end of the night, right before Remus left for the shrieking shack, they were laughing over Snivellus' recent predicaments. As usual.

 **A/N: Hello. I hope you enjoyed this little story, and I'd love to hear your feedback!**

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